September 12, 2012CAHI Praises Republican Party’s Platform on Health Care Reforms November elections are the next opportunity to return choice to Americans

(Alexandria, VA) – The Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) salutes the Republican Party’s adoption of a Platform which includes health care principles that address Americans' most personal decisions -- those impacting their health and the health of their families. The call to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and replace it with free market reforms which meet the needs of all Americans echoes CAHI’s “America’s Affordable Health Reform Plan: A Common--Sense Solution.” For a comparison of the Republican Party’s Platform and CAHI’s plan for reform, please visit www.cahi.org.

“Our members believe the Obama Administration’s “one-size-fits-all” big government approach creates a health care delivery system which has little regard for the unique characteristics of this great nation’s states and citizens," stated CAHI's interim Executive Director, Marianne Eterno. "The Republican Party Platform provides a foundation for the tools Americans need to create healthy families and provides the freedom states need to craft their own solutions. We are pleased to note the Platform mirrors what CAHI has advocated for the last twenty years."

"The Republican Party Platform tackles one of the fundamental problems with our health care system: costly mandates which have driven health insurance premiums out of the reach of millions of American consumers,” added Victoria Craig Bunce, CAHI Research and Policy Director. “CAHI has spent the last two decades shining a light on this issue. The latest edition of our annual “Health Insurance Mandates in the States” counted 2,262 mandates, the cumulative effect of which puts health insurance out of the reach of many Americans’ budgets.”

"The November elections will be the next battleground on which the fate of the federal health care reform law is decided," explained Roy Ramthun, CAHI Director of Federal Affairs. “Republicans plan to repeal the law and replace it with market-oriented solutions.”

Ramthun added, "Americans should not take for granted their access to high quality health care. We need to look at the experiences of the millions of people living in countries with government-run health care systems. When a government controls the health care system, citizens’ choices are limited to whatever the government chooses or can afford to provide. As a result, consumers’ access to health care is held hostage by a government's cost-benefit analysis. The Republican Party Platform gives consumers the power to make those most personal of decisions for themselves. CAHI is eager to work with the Republican Party as they implement these important principles."